On a recent visit to St. Simons and Savannah, we ran across a few significant sites for what historians call the “First Great Awakening.” The Great Awakening was an evangelical revival that swept across Britain and its colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. Many predominant preachers preached during this time including Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, and John Wesley. My family rode by Christ Episcopal Church in St. Simons where outside stands a massive oak with a historical marker entitled, The Wesley Oak. The marker says:
Not far from this spot stood the ‘great tree’ under which Charles Wesley had prayers and preached, March 14, 1736, the first Sunday after his arrival. There were about twenty people present, among whom was Mr. Oglethorpe. A year later, George Whitfield, appointed by the bishop of London to serve as Deacon at Savannah and Frederica, wrote in his Journal (August 8, 1737): ‘In the evening we have public prayers, the expounding of the second lesson under a large tree, and many more present than could be expected.’
From there our family visited Reynolds Square in Savannah where towering over the square is a monument dedicated to John Wesley. Marshal Daugherty, the artist describes the sculptor in this way: “The monument is as he looks up from his Bible towards his congregation about to speak to them and stretching out his right hand in love, invitation, and exhortation. In contrast, the hand holding the Bible is intense and powerful the point of contact with the Almighty.”
Wesley lived from 1703-1791. The bearing his likeness in Reynolds Square, Savannah, GA, was dedicated in 1969. Freshly into the new decade of 2020, the denomination bearing his name in America, The United Methodist Church (UMC) decided to split. The issue for the split: Same-sex marriage. The United Methodist Church formed in 1968 as a merger between the union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. In 2014 the UMC claimed over 12 million members in the USA making it the second-largest protestant denomination in the United States, second only to the Southern Baptist Convention. Of those considered “mainline protestant” the UMC ranks the largest. There is a lot in that distinction to unpack. First, the distinction “mainline” stands in contrast to those who consider themselves evangelical, fundamentalist, and charismatic. In addition to the UMC, the mainliners include The Evangelical Lutheran Church, The Presbyterian Church (USA), The Episcopal Church, The American Baptist, The United Church of Christ, and The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The second distinction is broader. Protestant refers to those denominations that trace their roots to the time of the Protestant Reformation ignited by an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther.
Of the mainliners, the UMC was the last to resist officially changing its policy to recognize same-sex marriage and allow openly gay members of the clergy. The UMC is a global denomination whose members are over 80 million worldwide. The majority of the population of the UMC resides outside the United States. It was just last year the issue of same-sex marriage came to a vote in the General Conference. Last year, conservatives in the UMC won a narrow victory when a special General Assembly was called to rewrite the United Methodist Book of Discipline to allow for openly gay clergy, and both the confirmation and celebration of same-sex marriage. If not for the contingency of conservatives in Africa, the vote to change the Book of Discipline would have been cast and the rules would have been changed to accommodate the LGBTQ+ movement.
Dr. Jerry P. Kulah, Dean of the Gbarna School of Theology’s comments at the special called conference in St. Louis Missouri in February 2019 represent the conservative contingency in the African conservative position. He says:
Friends, please hear me, we Africans are not afraid of our sisters and brothers who identify as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered, questioning, or queer. We love them and we hope the best for them. But we know of no compelling arguments for forsaking our church’s understanding of Scripture and the teachings of the church universal.
And then please hear me when I say as graciously as I can: we Africans are not children in need of western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics. We do not need to hear a progressive U.S. bishop lecture us about our need to ‘grow up.
But with all due respect, a fixation on money seems more of an American problem than an African one. We get by on far less than most Americans do; we know how to do it. I’m not so sure you do. So if anyone is so naïve or condescending as to think we would sell our birthright in Jesus Christ for American dollars, then they simply do not know us.
Dr. Kulah puts his finger right on what is at stake: Scripture and its teaching. What does the Bible say about homosexuality? It says a great deal. Kevin Deyoung, senior pastor of Christ Covenant Church, a Presbyterian Church (America) Church in Matthews, North Carolina reminds us in the opening of his book, What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?:
The question “What does the Bible really teach about homosexuality?” is about a great many things. It’s about Jesus’s view of marriage, and the point of Romans 1, and the sin of Genesis 19 (whatever it was), and the abiding relevance (or not) of laws found in Leviticus. It’s about the meaning of a few disputed Greek words and the significance of procreation. It’s about the ‘nature of same-sex behavior in the ancient world and whether the nature of personhood and personal fulfillment are defined by sexual expression. It’s about how we change, and what can change and what cannot. It’s about big themes like love and holiness and justice. It’s about personal hurts and hopes and fears and longings and duties and desires. It’s about faith and repentance and heaven and hell and a hundred other things. (9)
Deyoung’s biblical conclusion, “I believe the Bible places homosexual behavior – no matter the level of commitment or mutual affection – in the category of sexually immoral.” (129) If this indeed is the right conclusion, and I believe it is, the UMC (and others) decisions concerning the question of homosexuality stands in contrast to Scripture. When the UMC splits they will not only fracture the millions of members within the global UMC but will decidedly move away from nearly 2,000 years of Christian teaching. The damages of such a move is catastrophic. At this point, we simply do not know what will happen to each Methodist congregation. We appeal to the Baptist distinction of soul competency for our brothers and sisters who are rightly concerned with the expressed opinions that stand in contrast with Scripture. Each individual must make his or her choice. Each individual will stand before God. We pray for the United Methodist Church.
Standing before the Wesley monument with recent headlines fresh in mind, I remembered attending Love Joy United Methodist Church in Newnan with my great-grandmother. Wesley held the Bible before his parishioners and founded a movement called Methodism. A Methodism that strays from Scripture would not be recognized by Wesley, by my great-grandmother, and I am guessing not by many throughout the United Methodist Church today. We offer our prayers for this denomination and all others during these increasingly difficult days. Specifically, we pray for awakening, an awakening that resembles the artistic rendering of Wesley in Reynolds Square – holding Scripture intensely close with an open hand ready to receive any and all who repent and believe.